No Place Like Sports

A new ESPN commercial has the tag line, “There’s No Place Like Sports:  A Seat for Everyone.”  You see scene after scene of all kinds of different people connecting through sports:  fans in the stands all dressed in the team colors, fervor flowing from crowd to athlete and athlete to crowd, and a widely diverse array of folks all on the same page for the same cause—people whose paths in life might otherwise never cross.  But sports unites them.

They say, “Where else do we all dream the same dream?”  “Where else is there a seat for everyone?”  It’s the picture of inclusion.  And they make a fair point—sports does, in many ways, create a space for connection and common ground.  A place where we get past our differences, join with each other, and cheer on the home team.

I’ve been a sports fan my whole life (including cheering for the Minnesota Vikings all four times they lost the Super Bowl in the 1970s!).  And today in Philly, we’re bonkers with sports-mania.

And yet, with all due respect for sports, let me propose that there’s another dream we all dream—a deeper, truer dream.  And there is another seat, a place, a “home” which we all yearn to find—the abode of ultimate peace, security, and joy in our Maker’s presence.

“You were made for this”—for this Jesus, and the thrill of ever­last­ing life in glory!  God put “eternity in our hearts” (Eccl. 3:11).  So don’t settle for sports—fun and festive as the game may be.

Dream the dream!  The arms of the Lord are open wide to people from every tribe, language, and nation (Revelation 5:9). God’s heart goes out to Asian and African and all other inhabitants of this earth. In fact, he loved the world so profoundly that he gave his one and only Son to save us forever (John 3:16).  How do we receive that love?  “Whoever believes in him,” in Jesus Christ.  Believing—we’re saved by faith:  giving up on our own performance and trusting in the epic victory over sin and death won by Jesus Christ.  Believe!